When first we practise to deceive!"
These oft-quoted lines, written by Scottish author Sir Walter Scott (1771-1832), have a great deal of relevance when applied to the latest food system crisis. The current crisis, which involves the adulteration of dairy products originating in China, is having worldwide repercussions.
The adulterating substance is melamine, which should ring a few bells for pet owners, who will certainly remember the wide recall of numerous brands of pet food in the spring of 2007. This recall eventually involved products in the human food supply. The recalls in the United States came largely as the result of clusters of pet deaths due to renal failure from exposure to the tainted foods.
Melamine is sometimes added to products to increase the appearance of their protein content. It is a chemical that poses serious and long-term health implications for humans and other animals.
The list of implicated products is growing by the day, and already includes cheese, infant formula, cookies, creamer, candy, instant coffee and tea, and baby cereal. The implicated products - and the list of potentially contaminated products - have affected major consumer outlets, including Pizza Hut. While most of the tainted products have been discovered in Asian countries, some products have been pulled from American shelves. The recall will continue to grow, because the tainted products are ingredients in many processed foods.
How can we even know that the processed food products we buy aren't implicated? It's difficult to ascertain. Foods are so highly processed, and the aggregate nature of this processing means that food streams from all parts of the world often come together to form a single product. So while the manufacturers of my favorite processed food indulgence (a not-to-be-named cream filled chocolate cookie) have assured consumers that their cream filling doesn't contain any dairy product from China, I can't help but be concerned. Food labels simply don't contain enough information for me to accurately determine where a product's many ingredients originate.
In 1906, Upton Sinclair published The Jungle, a muckraking novel which highlighted - among other social ills - unsanitary practices in the meatpacking industry. While it wasn't Sinclair's primary intent, national response to the graphic descriptions of tainted food led to major federal legislation directly impacting food safety. These legislative pieces included the Meat Inspection Act and the Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906, which resulted in the creation of the Food and Drug Administration.
As an historian who has read The Jungle as both a piece of literature and as one of the first major commentaries on the American food system, I marvel at the impact a single book made. And I marvel at the lack of outrage at this latest food crisis, and the unquestioning way many of us purchase processed food products.
One of my favorite World War II posters encourages Americans to "be sure" by growing their own. Sounds better and better to me. If you can't grow your own, try to buy locally, and if you can't do that, buy minimally processed foods as often as possible.
Food processors intentionally sought to deceive consumers by cutting corners and adulterating food products. But the tangled web that has facilitated the spread of these tainted food products - a dysfunctional food system - is one entirely of our own making.
"A Garden for Everyone. Everyone in a Garden."
Author - Emeritus - UCCE Advisor in Digital Communications in Food Systems & Extension Education; Editor, UC Food Observer; Food and Society Policy Fellow